Preview PDFs

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I have some PDFs created on my work PC. They are scanned images which have been OCRed in Acrobat 6 so that the text can be searched. They are viewable on PCs, with Adobe Reader, and with Adobe Reader 5 and 6 on my iBook, however the Preview app shows only a blank page. Strangely, the text is still able to be selected, and the page view drawer shows the pages (in miniature) as they should be. Only the main window has a problem.



Can anyone help me to either:

- view the files correctly in Preview

or

- create PDFs of that type which will display correctly.



thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    If you CAN see them in Acrobat Reader, how about doing an OSX Print "Save to PDF" while in Reader, and see if the newly created file is readable by Preview?



    (You can use ColorSync/Quartz Filter to reduce file size if need be)

    (I assume you are on Panther since you say text is selectable in Preview)
  • Reply 2 of 5
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    My gut reaction is that somehow the text is colored white on a white background.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by adamr

    I have some PDFs created on my work PC. They are scanned images which have been OCRed in Acrobat 6 so that the text can be searched. They are viewable on PCs, with Adobe Reader, and with Adobe Reader 5 and 6 on my iBook, however the Preview app shows only a blank page. Strangely, the text is still able to be selected, and the page view drawer shows the pages (in miniature) as they should be. Only the main window has a problem.



    Can anyone help me to either:

    - view the files correctly in Preview

    or

    - create PDFs of that type which will display correctly.



    thanks




    If you get a PDF created on a PC, you should count yourself lucky that it displays properly using any software that you have. PC-created PDFs can be somewhat eccentric. My brother sent me a poster in PDF format that displayed properly in Acrobat. The file did not seem to print properly on my PostScript printer, however. A little experimentation got it to "Print As Image." Printing was slo-o-o-o-ow, but it worked. As for Preview, for some files it works better than Acrobat or Adobe Reader. For most PDFs, the Adobe applications are superior. I use Acrobat as my default.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    adamradamr Posts: 72member
    Thanks all



    I am running 10.3.4. I have had my iBook for only 1 week. It is my first Mac.



    The text is not white on white, because it is an image. The problem is that the image is not displaying, but the underlying recognised text (which is, incidentally, supposed to be invisible) is invisible, but selectable, resulting in a blank page.



    I have now tried to save as PDF from Adobe Reader, but Reader 6.0 will not allow you to either preview or do save to PDF from the print dialog box.



    I checked some files which were created with some recognised pages, and some plain image pages. The plain image pages show up fine. The recognised pages are invisible. I suspect that Preview is electing to display the text rather than the image, but is being caught out by the text being invisible.



    I can, and will, use Adobe Reader to view these files, but Preview is much faster and more convenient for simple reference.



    cheers
  • Reply 5 of 5
    jginsbujginsbu Posts: 135member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by adamr

    I have now tried to save as PDF from Adobe Reader, but Reader 6.0 will not allow you to either preview or do save to PDF from the print dialog box.



    That's because Adobe's apps use their own PDF and print engines instead of the standard Apple ones. Adobe's are more full-featured than Apple's.



    Quote:



    I can, and will, use Adobe Reader to view these files, but Preview is much faster and more convenient for simple reference.




    Preview doesn't implement all of the PDF standard, like PDF fill-in forms for example. It sounds like your documents are also using something that Preview doesn't support. Although Adobe Reader is TOO slow, it does have the advantage of implementing the whole standard. I basically only use Adobe Reader when Preview isn't handling a particular document; the find feature in Preview is so quick and easy that it has made using Adobe Reader a torturous experience when I have to.
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